Feb 18, 2011

Obama versus Abbas

Tomorrow, we were scheduled to go for a demonstration in the Nativity Square. The collective decision was to delay this for a few days to give us time to digest the changes happening (see below) and soon to happen around us and put the best strategy to achieve our collective goals.

Today/Friday, a critical vote may or may not happen at the UN Security Council but in either case, it will create a shift in the political landscape. If there is a vote, the US will veto it (against the wishes of 14 other UNSC members). In vetoing a resolution that uses the same language as the US always says (settlements are illegitimate and an obstacle to peace), the US will have solidified its reputation for hypocrisy in the Arab world and more people will rise against the dictators beholden to US-Israeli policies. Two down, 20 to go. The Israeli-occupied US administration is thus pushing hard to get the proposed resolution withdrawn. If the US has succeeded in its threats to make Mahmoud Abbas and company cave and withdraw the resolution without a vote, then we have Goldstone II and it could be fatal to the Oslo "process." I say Goldstone II, because the Abbas administration made the mistake of succumbing to US pressure and asked for a delay in the UN HRC consideration of the Goldstone report about Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Whatever happens today, people will come out ahead.

I just revisited a speech I wrote for President Obama and shared with those on my email lists on 11 Oct 2009. I think it is still valid and worth reading especially for US citizens in light of rapid changes around us. Notice item 7 (still pertinent for the many other dictators the US continues to support): "7- We will no longer support dictators and corrupt leaders. We will demand removal of dictators like Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak who has been in office for three decades with Western support. We will support democratic elections even when parties that get elected are not supportive of Israel or the previous US policy shaped in Tel Aviv. We will instead engage in immediate talks with groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and with countries like Venezuela and Iran to build a better future for all of us inequality and we will push for democracy and support of the will of the people even when this means resistance to Israeli hegemony. As John Kennedy stated once "If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable." http://www.qumsiyeh.org/presidentobama/

I had read the two books of Barak Obama three years ago and was very skeptical of the rhetoric of "change" that he espoused especially when the first thing he did when deciding to run for US Senate is ditch his Arab friends and make friends with the Israel lobby. But many of my friends not only voted for him but worked hard to get him elected. I left the US three years ago because I felt change there is indeed inevitable but not because of Obama. It is coming if nothing else than the total destruction of the US economy that the Zionist lobby is inflicting on America by leading politicians to endless wars against Muslim and Arab countries. Twelve trillion in US government debt and more than that in corporate and personal debts are catching up with the U.S.

If we study history we can learn something from it. IN 1953, the CIA toppled a democratic government in Iran that was led by a western-educated Prime Minister Mousaddak and shamefully, the US and British governments brought back a despicable regime (the Shah). His brutality led to the growth of fundamentalism which is now decried. It later also transpired that much of the fundamentalism here whether Mujahedeen in Afghanistan or many acts attributed to Al-Qaeda were supported or carried out by US backed elements (e.g. the bombing of the Church in Alexandria is now shown to have been carried out by the Egyptian interior ministry). So instead of creating and using the boogeyman of Islamic fundamentalism, it would be wiser for the US administration to actually support democracy and human rights. Stop blindly supporting the Apartheid state of Israel would go a long way to redeeming some credibility. Anything else the US does (pressuring or bribing Abbas, empty rhetoric and phone calls to aging dictators etc) will be counterproductive.

At a minimum, the US government should remove all those Zionists in its midst with loyalty to Israel (people like Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross, Rahm Emanuel, and Larry Summers) and gather real independent experts of various religious backgrounds (like professors Mearsheimer and Walt, Professor Richard Falk, Professor Francis Boyle etc) who can truly give a road map to change in policy. Congress and the State Department can also start immediately to investigate its "allies" in all Arab countries for human rights violations as is required by US laws before disbursing weapons and money to brutal regimes.

People are liberating themselves from fear. Governments and the military-industrial complex of repression are panicking. Yesterday many people were killed in Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen. Repression is increasing in Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. But all this will do is accelerate the demise of repressive regimes. If only one Arab ruler would volunteer to take the lead in ending his own repression and save himself the humiliating fate of Mubarak and Bin Ali!

A review of my new book on Popular Resistance in Palestine (which is now being reprinted). Book Review: Millions of Heroes by Sally Bland, Jordan Times, 14 February 2011 http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=34451

About Me

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem University (BU) and directs the BU's cytogenetics laboratory and the Palestine Museum of Natural History and Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability in occupied Palestine. He also taught at Birzeit and Al-Quds Universities. He is author of "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle", “Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment”, "Mammals of the Holy Land", and "The Bats of Egypt." He formerly served on the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People in Beit Sahour and Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Society at Aida Refugee Camp.